I must construct this pot for chestnuts (this is a part). The holes have been made with one mask in the transparency channel. Someone have a good idea to make "real" holes? Thanks in advance. Toxe

How about this:

1. Go into the spline modeler and draw a 10x10 circle. Draw a bunch of little circles and then do a combine as compound.
2. Add a formula modifier and use the following formula:
   dx=-x;
   dy=-y - cos(sqrt(x* x +z * z)) * 20 ;
   dz=-z;
3. Render!

Here is a quick sample with an Anything Grooves table top of course.

Good Luck,
Eric Winemiller
Digital Carvers Guild
Freeware and commercial 3D extensions
http://digitalcarversguild.com

Nice trick Eric! :)

Man, that table alone is enough to make me jump to Carrara, just to get AG! Unbelievable. I guess I just have to bite the bullet and do the jump....

Also, Amapi v6 handles boolean functions like that pretty well too. Table is an MBGroove shader applied to an Anything Groove plane. ;) Mark

Thanks to all, i have resolved the problem with a mask and a massive post production. For Eric, your solution is very good, but i have many more holes (like my pic) and compound operation not work perfectly. For Mark, i have Amapi 5, but i have problem to import illustrator files. However, many thanks to all :) Toxe

For professional correctness (it's a work in progress for adv agency) I cannot publish the definitive image in this forum, I will send when the job will be ended. Thanks, I have appreciated a lot yours aid.

hello Toxe, if you have problemes to import illustrator files in Amapi, try to save your files in illustrator 3.0 and, it works.JJ

I have already tried, Mr. Amapi says "cannot open file". Thanks. You have a Mac or Pc?

If you can not open the file , try to import it. hope it works I am on mac and have no problems with illustrator files !!! by

I have already tried. It's the same... Perhaps there is some extension in conflict? I will ask Eovia. Thanks again.

Toxe, If you're still trying to build the bowl with holes, I actually created the entire object in Amapi with no Illustrator imports. Just step and repeat operations with a cylinder. I don't have any insight into the import problems. I would have guessed it was just not saving the files to be importated as AI v3 files. Post back if you get it figured out! Mark

Dear Mark, I think that is not a problem to make holes into a various surfaces like gordon, spline, vertex, etc. But, when you have a pic like this, i think that the only method is to import illustrator files. Otherwise you must construct every single holes with different shapes. When the adv agencies have haste this solution becomes impossible. If you want to make test with original illustrator file, contact me via e-mail. Thanks for your attention and availability.

Okay,I will have to admit,my jaw dropped when I saw the perforated pots and two table tops.So are they pics or what? Whew! I think I am sticking with carrara(though it crashes each time I try to render it could be fixed I guess)whew,i am going to get all the digital carvers plug in( I only wish they've got some hair stuff)

I've always had a problem (like many people) with complex compound objects in the spline modeler leaving out surface polygons. However, thanks to working TOXE's problem, I've found a solution. Instead of creating a compound shape in Illustrator, group the objects that will become the voids, then use the "Bring to Front" operation in Illustrator. Finally, use the Pathfinder palette to "Remove Front Object". The missing polygon issue is fixed. Why this works differently than the compound object I do not know, but it does. (Are computers supposed to make sense anyway?) The image above was created in the spline modeler and then converted into a vertex object. Carrara truncates the corners of round spline objects when a deformer is applied to them. However, the shape fidelity remains consistent on vertex objects. (Again, I don't know why.) The bowl shape is created by using the formula deformer solution posted further above by Eric Winemiller with a value of 250 instead 20. Hope this helps out. Mark www.MarkBremmer.com